Where do you get food? A question from a reader.

This morning I opened my e-mail and found this query from a reader:

"Where do you get your vegan supplies? Like vegan mayo, Amy's pizza, etc. I have been a vegan and since moving down here I haven't bee able to find much in vegan fare. When I travel to Akron I can always stop at the Mustard Seed, but is there place down here?"

I get asked this quite a bit and my answer is quite a bit different from my girlfriend's. She moved to Marietta several months ago from Columbus, where vegan foods and specialty ingredients were more readily available.

That said, I don't think it's as hard to find these foods as some people make it out to be. Of course, I'm used to shopping here and not as familiar with doing so in a much larger city. And, of course, most of what I eat are whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes. That stuff you can get anywhere.

But let's start with tofu, the first food most meat eaters think of when they consider a vegan diet. Tofu is readily available in all its shapes and sizes at Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle and Kroger.

All three of those stores also offer soy milk, soy creamer, soy ice cream products, Boca products and other packaged, processed vegan and vegetarian foods. Kroger occasionally offers vegan hot dogs, toffuti sour cream, Gimme Lean sausage, vegan bacon and more.

For more specialty items such as vegan mayo, tempeh, seitan, soy pudding or yogurt, I typically head to Mother Earth Foods in Parkersburg. And for anything I can't find there, a trip to Columbus or Athens is usually in store, pardon the pun.

I do visit those two cities at least once a month so it's not like I'm making a special trip for those products.

All in all, I don't find myself living a ascetic lifestyle. A monk I most certainly am not. Anything I crave, yes even cheese (Daiya is the greatest vegan cheese, nay vegan food, that's ever been created), I can pretty much get here in the MOV.

But even still, I try not to eat a lot of those foods anyway because they're simply not as healthy as the whole foods I try to make the bulk of my diet.

Hopefully, a business will start up in Marietta to replace my cherished and much sorely missed Brighter Day. Until that day, I'll make my multiple trips to various grocers and continue to eat like a king.

Ed. note: Readers, got a question for me? Wonder how I do it? Where I get recipes from? Etc. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll answer your query in my next blog post.